Federal Crackdown On Tour Buses

<> on February 15, 2013 in San Bernardino, California. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

(ASSOCIATED PRESS, KXNT)–Federal accident investigators called Thursday for a probe of the government agency charged with ensuring the safety of tour buses, saying its own look into four crashes that killed 25 people raises “serious questions” about how well the agency is doing its job.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration needs to crack down on bad actors in the tour-bus industry “before crashes occur, not just after high visibility events,” said Deborah Hersman, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board.

NTSB’s look at deadly tour bus crashes in California, Oregon, Kentucky and Tennessee over the past year found serious weaknesses in oversight of tour bus companies. The NTSB says that in each case, the motor carrier safety agency identified problems and “red flags,” but didn’t take action until after the crashes.

The Oregon crash was a Las Vegas to Vancouver, BC bus operated by Mi Joo Tour & Travel, a British Columbia-based firm.

The bus crashed through a guardrail and went down a 100 foot embankment on an icy I-84 in eastern Oregon. Nine people died, and more than 20 were injured.